Negative space, positive reaction
As a designer I have, on occasion, found myself defending the utilization of white space when presenting a design to a client.
It usually starts with a comment about how little there is on the page, to which I reply that the sparseness is actually an accomplishment, and that the white (or negative) space around the elements is as crucial as the positive elements themselves. Personally, I believe the space that defines and anchors the shapes on the page is a crucial factor in determining if something is a success or failure.
The trick is to really see it.
Take outer space, for example; lots of really big things floating around in what used to be thought of as black nothingness. Scientists now call this nothingness black matter and black energy, and have determined that it actually is made up of a whole lot of something rather than nothing, and when studying planets, moons or galaxies and how they react to one another, it is this space between the objects that tells a far richer story than the objects alone can.
The ability to see the space around things, whether they're design elements, planets, or human experiences, gives us a unique context - or vantage point, if you will - for reassessing situations or outcomes that go unseen by most.
And that's a positive for negative.